Currently in Aurora CO (Low 44 Pleasant with Clouds and Sun High 76)
We departed Colorado City, Colorado yesterday and headed to Aurora, also in Colorado. Pikes Peak looked neat with a snow cover.
We are staying at Cherry Creek State Park.
It was approximately 130 miles, this is the route we took.
We will be here almost two weeks as Bob has medical tests related to his exposure to Beryllium while working at Bendix/AlliedSignal/Honeywell in Kansas City. Jo is also getting a haircut today so wish us both good luck 😅
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Colorado City CO (Low 50 Clouds and Sun Currently 62)
Heading to Aurora CO (Currently 63 Mostly Sunny High 82)
The KOA in Colorado City, just south of Pueblo, is a very scenic park. We had some nice sunsets out our back window while we were here.
This park is right off of I-25 so both of our GPS did a good job getting us here. The office people were great during our wind delays and during our checkin. We got a great couple of restaurant recommendations, Max's for breakfast Three Sisters for lunch/supper, and that lead to great meals and desserts, one of which was the best blueberry pie we have ever had. The way our pull thru was laid out made it the easiest pull thru ever.
The pull thru was long enough that if we wanted to stay hooked up we could have. The 50amp full hookups were convenient. As you can see in the pictures we had a great line of sight for our roof mounted dish. We had great signal strength for both ATT cellular and 4g. The park had free wifi but the 40mb/sec for 4g ATT was faster.
Here is the Lifestyle from the front.
To the right.
To the left.
From the rear.
Here is the view out our back window during the day. Surprised to see a small amount of snow this late in the year.
Finally here is a sunrise picture, which we usually do not take very often 😀
We would stay here again for the scenery and good food.
We depart today for Aurora Colorado in the Denver metroplex.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Colorado City CO (Low 34 Sunny, Pleasant and Warmer High 75)
After an overnight stay in Springer New Mexico we were dealing with high winds yesterday morning with gusts up to 50mph. The high wind advisory ended in the afternoon so we were unsure what to do. Kudos to the owner of Santa Fe Trails RV Park because when Bob called and asked about a late departure she told him not to worry about when we leave, she was more concerned about our safety. If we stay the night then we can walk up to the office and pay. If not staying then leave when we feel comfortable leaving.
We had lunch and the winds died down so we left about 130p and headed to Colorado City Colorado which is just south of Pueblo. There was some wind but it was way below the 50mph gusts. A neat rock formation cut out for the interstate along the way.
We are staying at the Pueblo South/Colorado City KOA.
It was approximately 120 miles to the Colorado City KOA, this is the route we took.
We plan on staying here 3 nights as we continue our trek to the Denver area for Bob's medical testing.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Springer NM (Low 34 Cloudy and Breezy Currently 52)
May be heading to Colorado City CO (Currently 51 Mostly Cloudy High 60)
We departed Santa Fe New Mexico yesterday and headed to Springer, also in New Mexico. Hard to believe but we saw snow capped mountains in the distance during our drive.
We are staying at The Old Santa Fe Trail RV Park.
It was approximately 140 miles, this is the route we took.
We are staying one night so we stayed hooked up. Our GPS devices had a little trouble finding the park before the trip so Bob manually entered the park's latitude/longitude. Once on the road the Rand McNally GPS device worked great. The Garmin GPS has been flaky ever since the last update. Google maps agreed with the Rand McNally so it broke the tie.
We were in a pull thru and the full hookups looked convenient although all we used was electrical and we were in backwards trying our best to get a satellite signal. The office was closed when we got there so we started setting up. We were in a 30amp site for $18 which didn't bother us as the temperature was in the 60s so we wouldn't need air conditioning, much less two air conditioners. As Bob was digging around trying to find our 30amp extension cord the office lady came and said we could pull forward enough for our power cord to reach.
That seemed to make a difference for our roof mounted dish, although at first glance we didn't think we would be getting much of a signal.
Here is a closeup of the dish showing the trees.
Turns out we got great signal strength.We were also surprised how good our ATT signals were, 3 bars for cellular and 1-2 bars for 4g. The park does not offer wifi so we were very thankful for whatever signal we got.
Here is the Lifestyle from the front.
To the right.
To the left.
From the rear.
As we mentioned before the office lady was great. She is a fellow foodie cause she started talking about a place we could walk to and eat if we wanted. We had leftover ribs, bbq beans and potato salad so we were set. There also is another restaurant she recommends and the town has a travel info center and a museum. We might stay here again and check out some of the sites of the town.
We planned to leave today for Colorado City, Colorado just south of Pueblo but the high winds prevalent this time of year have kicked up again. When we called the office about potentially a late checkout since the winds were supposed to die down by 3p she said stay as long as we need to, she wants us to be safe. If we stay the night then we can pay. Stay tuned to our blog to find out if we leave today.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Santa Fe NM (Low 36 Cloudy Currently 44)
Heading to Springer NM (Currently 47 Times of Clouds and Sun High 66)
Since we have stayed at Santa Fe Skies RV Park before we don't need to do a park review. There are a lot of outdoor displays, especially antique hit and miss engines, tractors, graters, etc.
We liked that most of the displays had information about what you were seeing.
Here is a portion of the 72" water pipe mentioned above used for bringing water from the Rio Grande to the Albuquerque water treatment plant.
Sprinkled throughout the outdoor displays is some artwork.
Situated on a hill above Santa Fe you can get a nice view and great sunsets view-able from our back window.
Along with easy access to Santa Fe. The outdoor displays are an added bonus.
We leave today for Springer, New Mexico.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Santa Fe NM (Low 34 Mostly Sunny High 68)
Some people say that the bias in the media is a recent happening but this movie proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this bias has been pervasive for many years. In the movie 'Chappaquiddick' we see it in spades.
In 1969 Ted Kennedy (played by Jason Clarke) drives off a bridge into Poucha Pond with Mary Jo Kopechne (played by Kate Mara) in the car. Ted gets out of the car and just leaves the scene and doesn't report the accident for 10 hours. The movie deals with the aftermath of how the Kennedy's, especially Joe Kennedy (Ted's father played by Bruce Dern) had no regard other than what this would do to Ted's political future. There was especially no regard for Mary Jo Kopechne trapped in that car. The press was a willing accomplice allowing themselves to be manipulated. Law enforcement was also lacking bowing to pressures from the Kennedy machine.
After seeing the movie we now know why according to Variety that the CEO of Entertainment Studios was heavily pressured by the Kennedy clan and others to not do this movie. We understand that it has to be hard on the current generation of Kennedys since they had nothing to do with this incident or the coverup. This was also a little tough on Bob who as a Catholic in the 60s supported the Kennedys. But this story had to be told. Added one of the actors: “This movie’s also been a long time coming. The fact that the movie wasn’t made before is pretty impressive.” The acting was terrific making this a movie to see, even though it is somber and downright disturbing at times, if only for the history that took so long to be revealed.
If Ted Kennedy had a soul the name Mary Jo Kopechne should have haunted him till his dying day, but we guarantee after seeing this movie the name Mary Jo Kopechne will be seared into your consciousness.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Santa Fe NM (Low 38 Some Sun, Becoming Windier High 65)
We departed Albuquerque, New Mexico yesterday and headed to Santa Fe, also in New Mexico. We are staying again at Santa Fe Skies RV Park.
It was a short trip of only 55 miles, this is the route we took.
We will be here a week enjoying the sites and the food of Santa Fe.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Albuquerque NM (Low 36 Sunny Currently 40)
Heading to Santa Fe NM (Currently 34 Plenty of Sunshine High 63)
As we age the ride of the Ford F-350 seems to get worse. At the current pace it was likely to reduce the number of years that we could continue full-timing. We thought about a new truck but decided to try a couple of things first. We went with the Airlift 5000 airbags. Here is the top of the airbags as installed.
Here is a diagram showing the installation.
Our first impression driving solo without the fifth wheel was in a word, amazing. We thought we were going to get some relief while solo but we are very pleased with how much relief. Then after towing it a few times we are also very pleased while towing. In fact on a couple of the trips we didn't realize how rough the road was until we unhitched and walked inside the coach.
We still have some fine tuning of the airbags psi while solo, solo with a full auxiliary fuel tank, and while towing. But we are glad that we bought the air bags and look forward to many years of riding on air.
We depart today for Santa Fe also in New Mexico. We extended our stay in Albuquerque due to high winds.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Albuquerque NM (Low 52 Sunny and Breezy High 83)
After an overnight stay in Tatum New Mexico we departed yesterday and headed to Albuquerque. We drove through Roswell that has really embraced its UFO connection. Here is the city limit sign. We tried to get a photo but it didn't turn out so we got one from the web.
You won't see this at your local Domino's. We were at a stoplight so we were able to get this photo.
We are staying at the KOA.
It was a long day for us at approximately 264 miles, here is the route we took.
We will be in Albuquerque for a week highlighted by visits with friends and of course eating at a few of our favorite places to eat.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Tatum NM (Low 38 Currently Sunny 42)
Heading to Albuquerque NM (Currently 45 Nice with plenty of sunshine High 74)
Jo was not feeling well on Sunday but she was feeling better so we departed yesterday and headed to Tatum New Mexico. We stayed one night at the Randolph Rampy City Park which allows free over nite camping up to 3 nights. We were the first ones in the park. The pull thrus are located right next to the park.
It was a long day for us at approximately 235 miles, this is the route we took.
Since this was an overnight stay here is our park review. Neither of our GPS devices had the Randolph Rampy RV Park POI readily available so we input the street address and the Rand McNally worked great getting us here but the Garmin seemed to think that the Rand McNally route we were on was not for trucks, as we were being passed by semis 😀
Since we stayed hooked up we only used electrical and it was a convenient hookup at 50amp which surprised us since we were expecting 30amp but there were brand new boxes. The water and sewer hookups looked a little hinky but like we said we only used electrical. We had a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish and great ATT hotspot and cellphone signals. The park did not provide free wifi which is going on the complaint form. Just kidding this was a very nice over nite stay. Here is the Lifestyle from the front showing the good line of sight for the dish.
To the right showing a couple that came in just after we did. Eventually a third RV came in.
To the left.
From the rear.
As you can see a basic park but suited our needs just fine as a stopping point on our way to Albuquerque, and you can't beat the price.
We depart today for Albuquerque, also in New Mexico, where we will meet some of our RV friends and maybe some of the folks Bob used to work with.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in San Angelo TX (Low 36 Currently Sunny 42)
Heading to Tatum NM (Currently 38 Mostly Sunny and Breezy High 87)
Even though we had been here before we still had our GPS on and it took us right to the San Angelo KOA after both of them had been recently updated.
The interior roads and sites were gravel. We were in a long pullthru
and the hookups were convenient with two sewer connections depending on
which end of the site you chose. We had a satellite friendly site with a
nice patio. The park had free wifi at 1Mb/sec but our ATT hotspot came in at 20Mb/sec so we used that. The cellphone signal was also strong.
Although KOAs are more expensive than most parks we have
started staying more and more. Site unseen you can generally count on a
KOA as a good park because sometimes we have been fooled by the website
and reviews of other parks and haven't enjoyed our stay. We would stay
at this KOA again.
San Angelo is in the Concho Valley in west Texas and has great sunsets. Here is one example we saw during our stay.
Here is the Lifestyle from the front.
To the right.
To the left.
From the rear.
We depart today for Tatum, New Mexico.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in San Angelo TX (Low 32 Cooler with Decreasing Clouds High 53)
We saw a tweet from the Knights of Columbus that said if you were going to watch only one Hollywood movie this year it should be 'Paul, Apostle of Christ'.
Set in Rome at the time of Paul's martyrdom this movie tells the story of the incredible bravery of the early Christians. Luke the Evangelist risks his life every time he visits Paul in his prison cell. The Romans, led by Aquila and Priscilla, face one of the most brutal persecutions ever led by Emperor Nero who blamed the Christians for the burning of Rome. Yet these Christian Romans preserved and helped spread the Christian faith, "The Way". Paul in his own right was haunted by his deeds as Saul of Tarsus where he persecuted "The Way".
A couple of scenes that caught our eye was the Christian Romans copying what Luke wrote while visiting Paul to carry on their journey. Luke hands them a letter that Paul wrote to Timothy in Ephesus. It is amazing that from the humblest of beginnings that these tortured Christians still carried these letters ensuring that they would someday become part of the Bible. Another scene was as the date for Paul's martyrdom approached there was a scene of Paul breaking bread, eating it and handing it to Luke. Paul then drank from the chalice and handed it to Luke. The final scene that we really liked was Paul being greeted joyfully after his martyrdom by those he had persecuted and then by Jesus.
This is another faith based movie that is really good, especially Jim Caviezel as Luke and James Faulkner as Paul.
After the movie we ate at Gil's Restaurant which was recommended by the KOA owners. Sorry we forgot to take pictures. We split a chile relleno plate and a chimichanga smothered in queso plate. Such good food we got takeout this morning for breakfast getting a spanish omelet with the spanish sauce that Bob has been hunting for these many years. The pancakes were also very good. If we are ever in San Angelo again we will be eating here.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in San Angelo TX (Low 60 Partly Sunny and Breezy High 93)
After 6 and 1/2 months we departed Kerrville Texas Wednesday and headed to San Angelo, also in Texas. We were surprised at the number of bluebonnets we saw along the way the further we got away from the Hill Country, we wished we had taken some pictures. We are staying at the KOA in San Angelo.
It was approximately 145 miles, this is the route we took.
We will be here a few days as we first head to Albuquerque and ending up in the Upper Peninsula for the summer.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
Currently in Kerrville TX (Low 40 Currently Partly Cloudy 48)
Heading to San Angelo TX (Currently 45 Brilliant Sunshine High 68)
By the River RV Park and Campground is located off the Junction Highway so our GPS devices had no problem getting us to the park. The front desk people were great at checkin. We had a nice pull thru that was long enough for both the RV and truck. The site was mostly gravel. The hookups were convenient. We had a lot of rain during our stay and we wish there was a little more gravel but the park in our area drained pretty good. We had a good line of sight for our roof mounted satellite dish.
By the River RV Park and Campground is located on an arm of the Guadalupe River. There are a
lot of walking trails and a bridge to the island created by the arm as
it exits and then rejoins the Guadalupe River. Here are the RVs parked next to the water.
Here is the Lifestyle from the front.
To the right.
To the left.
From the rear.
There are a lot of nice parks in Kerrville and we would stay here again. In fact we will be back in December of this year.
We depart today for San Angelo Texas for a few days.
Till next time,
Bob and Jo
